WordPress theme
Total Theme <= 2.1.19 — Authenticated(Subscriber+) Plugin Activation
CVE-2023-27456Published · Updated Action summary
Affected: ≤2.1.19Update to 2.1.20 or newer
All remediation stepsMedium4.3CVSS 3.14.3CISA KEVNot listedAccessLow-privilege account (e.g. subscriber)
On this page3
Overview
- Advisory ID
- CVE-2023-27456
- Product
- Total total
- Affected
- ≤2.1.19
- Fixed in
- 2.1.20
- Weakness
- CWE-862 Missing Authorization
- Required access
- Low-privilege account (e.g. subscriber)
- Published
- · updated
- Credit
- Dave Jong
- Source
- Wordfence Intelligence
- Affected≤ 2.1.19
- Patched in2.1.20
Update to 2.1.20 or newer.
4.3
CVSS 3.1 · CNA (Wordfence)CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:NWhat does this vector mean?
AV:NAttack vector- Network
AC:LAttack complexity- Low
PR:LPrivileges required- Low
UI:NUser interaction- None
S:UScope- Unchanged
C:NConfidentiality- None
I:LIntegrity- Low
A:NAvailability- None
The Total theme for WordPress is vulnerable to Plugin Activation due to insufficient capability and nonce checks on the 'activate_plugin' function in versions up to, and including, 2.1.19. This allows any authenticated attacker with subscriber-level capabilities or greater to activate arbitrary plugins already installed on the site.
Not sure which version you run? Run a passive check — it reads public files only.
Remediation & mitigations
- Update to version 2.1.20, or a newer patched version
- Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.
References & provenance
Proof-of-concept & detection
No public proof-of-concept or detection template is known for this vulnerability.
Advisories & patches
- Advisorywordfence.com
Related CVEs
- 5.4CVE-2026-5077Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Post Title in Blog Section Image alt Attribute
- 4.3CVE-2024-1771Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Subscriber+) Sections Update
Timeline
CVE published
Severity medium, CVSS 4.3
Record last updated
Sources & licenses
Sources & licenses
Wordfence record- Vulnerability data
- Wordfence Intelligence. Copyright 2012-2026 Defiant Inc. Licensed under the CC BY-SA 4.0.
- CVE® identifiers
- Copyright 1999-2026 The MITRE Corporation. Used under the CVE Program. CVE® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation.
- CVSS / CWE
- National Vulnerability Database (NVD), shown unmodified. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
- VulnCrest content
- Summary, remediation guidance and page layout © VulnCrest. Not sourced from NVD.